Mediaboss Marketing

Grab your popcorn. Theres a new movie that looks back on the history of SEO from the mid-1990s to today.

Wait. A movie about SEO?

Yep. It may seem odd at first glance, but as anyone whos been around the industry for the past 20 or so years could tell you, there are definitely some interesting stories to tell.

So thats what John Lincoln, CEO of Ignite Visibility, set out to do. He began working on SEO: The Movie last October, interviewing a half-dozen industry veterans (including Search Engine Lands Danny Sullivan and Barry Schwartz) about topics like

Lincoln also narrates the movie, which covers topics up to and including recent developments like Googles Panda and Penguin algorithm updates.

A couple of stories really stood out to me: Rae Hoffman (aka Sugarrae) talking about how her first affiliate marketing commission check was worth more than what her then-husband was making in an entire year, and Rand Fishkin of Moz talking about the companys early financial troubles and how attending two conferences set a course toward profitability. Theres also a section that very appropriately discusses the huge impact that former Googler Matt Cutts had across the SEO industry, from his days as GoogleGuy at WebmasterWorld and other forums up until his recent switch to a career at the US Digital Service.

Im the farthest thing from a movie critic, but others who want to pick apart the film will rightly point out that its US-centric and that a lot of industry pioneers werent interviewed. (Link building pioneer Eric Ward even supplied Lincoln with a tongue-in-cheek rant about not being interviewed; its included during the end credits.)

The bottom line is that its impossible to tell the entire history of SEO in about 40 minutes. As Lincoln told me via email, his movie purposely focuses just on some of the key events from the early days of SEO up to recent times.

Still, I think industry veterans and newcomers will enjoy it. I did, and it left me hoping to someday see a longer version with more SEO luminaries young and old telling stories about how the industry began and evolved.

If you want to check out SEO: The Movie, the full-length movie is embedded below.

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'SEO: The Movie' aims to trace the rise of internet marketing - Search Engine Land